A recent safety audit of Koochiching County’s highways revealed that safety issues in the county are similar to those in other Minnesota counties.
After reviewing 127 miles of County State Aid Highways and 18 intersections, Howard Preston, senior transportation engineer with the CH2M Hill firm, said the county’s highways are in “pretty good shape.”
But the team of safety experts collaborated on a list of general items the Koochiching County Highway Department staff can complete to increase the safety on the roads.
Suggestions from the engineering team that conducted the Road Safety Audit Review include more signs on curves on county highways and adding “rumble strikes” to about 25 miles of county highways. A rumble strike is a series of grooves placed in the pavement at the edge of the highway which cause the vehicle to vibrate to alert the driver when they are near the edge of the roadway.
A focus also needs to be placed on driver behavior, such as wearing seat belts and decreasing alcohol-impaired driving, to help decrease the number of fatalities and injuries in collisions, according to the audit.
On county highways in Minnesota, the annual average number of crashes between 2002-2006 was 88,200. Koochiching County had an average annual number of 151 total crashes in that same time period, with averages of two fatal crashes and 49 crashes that involved injuries, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. About 26 percent of those crashes happened on highways in the county.
Most of the accidents that occur on Koochiching County highways happen in rural areas where the speed limit is 55 miles per hour, according to the audit. Most of those accidents occur on curves in the highway, leading the team to suggest additional warning signs on some of the highway curves.
The audit team also found that 67 percent of severe crashes occur when a vehicle goes off the roadway. As a result, the team suggested that the county improve infrastructure that would decrease the number of vehicles going off the road.
The audit sets Koochiching County up to receive funding for road projects in the future and also was an opportunity for the county to receive recommendations from a road safety expert, county Highway Engineer Doug Grindall said.
Koochiching County can now compete with other counties in the state to receive funding for improving county roads. The program was started by the Minnesota Department of Transportation three years ago in an effort to recognize that half of the fatalities that occur in Minnesota happen on county roads, Preston said.
County Highway Department staff now plan to begin implementing some of the recommendations. Several of the recommendations have already been implemented, Grindall said. Among those are paving the roads wider when crews reconstruct highways to help decrease the number of vehicles driving off the road.
Two specific segments of highway in Koochiching County were above the critical crash rate — County Highway 2 and County Highway 24.d
On County Highway 2, also known as 11th Avenue West in International Falls, the audit recommends is reinforcing the urban setting south of 15th Street and to address the crashes at its intersection of County Highway 45, according to the audit.
On County Highway 24, also known as the Van Lynn Road, the recommendation calls for upgrading the street signs and to trim the trees to improve sight distance along the streets that intersect the highway, according to the audit.
About 46 percent of crashes at intersections occur on county roads, according to the audit. Life-changing crashes account for 33 percent of intersection crashes.
The intersection of County Highway 2 and County Highway 45 was the only intersection above the critical crash rate, according to the audit. The team suggested improving the signs on the east-west approach to the intersection, adding Minnesota Department of Transportation-style street lights and street signs, removing the “Cross Traffic Does Not Stop” sign and making the intersection a four-way stop.
Other recommendations for intersections include:
• Adding warning system and street lights to the intersection of Highway 11 and the Tilson Bay boat landing parking lot. A long-term solution recommended was to locate the launch and parking area on the same side of the highway.
• Adding right and left turn lanes to the proposed future intersection of Highway 332 and Highway 11. The audit called the intersection of the county’s proposed relocation of Highway 332 a “good intersection location — no curves or bridges to impair sight distance.”
• Working with MnDOT to convert Highway 11 to a three-lane design at its intersection with County Highway 2. The suggestion is a result of the team observing that there was a possible shortage of gaps in traffic to allow vehicles to cross Highway 11 onto the county highway. It would require the removal of on-street parking, according to the audit. The county should also work with MnDOT and the city of International Falls to install traffic signals at the intersection, according to the report.
• Converting the yield signs to stop signs at the intersection of County Highway 2 and 15th Street and converting the stop signs to yield signs. The change would allow traffic on the county highway to proceed through both intersections without stopping. The trees at the intersection also impair the sight lines for eastbound vehicles on 15th Street, according to the audit.